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November 18, 2009

Long-established funeral home closes doors

By Rich Flowers News Editor

A decades-old Athens Funeral Home has closed, and the Texas Department of Banking is currently helping insure that customers don’t lose their pre-paid funeral benefits.

Gordon-Foster-Brown Funeral Home ceased operations on Nov. 15. After the closure, the TDB assumed custody of the records and funds related to the home’s pre-paid funeral contracts.

According to TDB, the department will soon begin proceedings to find another funeral home to service the 70 trust-funded contracts of purchasers who elect to keep them.

“It was a voluntary seizure from the department,” TDB Deputy Director Stephanie Newberg said. “We were contacted by the funeral home that they would be closing.”

Newberg said the closure was due to financial difficulties.

Department staff has begun going through the funeral home’s records, and will soon contact the customers.

“We will be sending letters to the individual purchasers telling them if they’re making payments, they’ll begin making them to the Department of Banking,” Newberg said. “If the contracts are paid in full, then they will remain intact.”

The Department will contact other funeral homes in the area, and ask if they’re interested in bidding for the contracts. The goal, Newberg said, is to find a funeral home that is acceptable to the purchaser of the contract.

“If no one is interested in taking the contracts, we have pre-paid funeral guaranty funds through which funds are set aside where we can help pay for someone to do the funeral, or we could issue complete refunds,” Newberg said.

TDB will contact insurance companies who have purchased insurance-funded contracts through Gordon-Foster-Brown of the funeral homes’ closing. The insurance company will assist the customer in securing another funeral home to honor the contracts.

“Funeral homes very infrequently go out of business,” Newberg said. “This is being handled pretty much in the same form as in the case of the others that have.”

Gordon-Foster-Brown officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

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